


Toil and Trouble

by Xanoka



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Cabin Pressure - Freeform, Cauldron, Cookery - Freeform, Fandot Creativity Night, Friendship, Gen, Halloween, cooking disaster, fandot, spooky stew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5118287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xanoka/pseuds/Xanoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Halloween and Arthur has put in a lot of effort cooking up something extra special.  Unfortunately, it's looking more like a witch's brew than anything else.... For the Halloween Fandot Creativity Night prompt 'Cauldron'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toil and Trouble

“Arthur, what, may I ask, is that?”

Arthur looked up from his concoction and waved cheerily.  He was probably smiling, but it was hard to tell as he was wearing a bandana tied around his mouth and nose.  Douglas wisely pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it to his face.

“It’s something new I’m trying.  It’s almost finished.”

Douglas stared doubtfully into the cooking pot.  It was emitting rather concerning fumes that made it resemble a witch’s cauldron more than anything else.  The contents were murky and thick and bubbled ominously.

“This wouldn’t be more ‘surprising rice’, would it?  Because last time I was, indeed, very surprised.”

Arthur’s eyes crinkled in a definite smile.

“No, don’t be silly!  It’s Halloween!  I wouldn’t do the same thing again.  I wanted to make something new and exciting for everyone!”

“That is what I feared.”

Arthur appeared not to hear, busying himself with tapping his ladle against the side of the pot.  There was a metallic scrape and thunk as something hit the bottom.

“Oh, no!  That was my fifth one!  I don’t know if I have another.  Douglas, would you move a bit so I can look in the drawer, please?”

Discarding the bowless ladle casually, which, Douglas was interested to note, looked like it had been dipped in acid, Arthur gently nudged him out of the way and began to rummage.

“We have an ice cream scoop, I suppose.  It’s a bit short though.   It fizzes sometimes, you know.”

The brew hissed and spat a little glob of something as if to prove the point.

“Oh, wait,” Arthur continued blithely.  “A wooden spoon!  That’ll do, I’m almost finished anyway!”

He really ought to point out that wood would hardly fare better than metal.  Instead Douglas opted to satisfy his curiosity.

“All right then, Arthur, what’s in your _magnum opus_?”

Arthur chuckled good naturedly.  “Ah, can’t tell you that, Douglas!”

“Trying to preserve an air of mystery, are we?”

“Yeah, something like that.  Although,” Arthur tapped his chin thoughtfully.  “It’s more that I’m not really _sure_.”

“Ah.”  Douglas’ resolve not to eat Arthur’s cooking hardened.

“It’s going to be great, though.  I’ve been working on it for hours!  I just wanted to make you guys something extra-special!  I think I’ll call it my _Spooky Stew_.”

His resolve wavered.  Then the perfect solution presented itself.

“You know, Arthur, I’ve already eaten, but I think Martin will _love_ it.”


End file.
